Dalit Empowerment through
Entrepreneurship: A Case of
Gurpreet Bal
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract
This paper is
based on an empirical research conducted in the Jalandhar city of
Indian society
has historically evolved on the principle of hereditary occupations where the
choice of occupation was absent for the people. Occupations were not simply
inherited in the family; rather a caste was identified with the hereditary
occupation. Sometimes even the name of the caste corresponded with the
occupation. As we move to the castes lower in the hierarchy, the restrictions
on the choice of occupation were more severe. The restricted choice of
occupations provided for limited or no social mobility.
The industrial development in
Confined to the
cities that were not growing at a fast rate. So far as the upper castes and
power holders in
the society are concerned, they might have been unrestrained by power relations
in the village to choose particular occupations though it is quite possible
that their higher caste status might have limited their choices in opting for
particular occupations even in the case of those individuals who were not
economically well off.
In the light of the above, it becomes
clear that breaking of the tradition tended to encompass all aspects of human
life. What made it so all pervasive was the existence of caste system and its
ideology that provided the justification to the system. The link between caste
and occupation has been quite complex and there is a need to examine it in the
context of scheduled castes. Since a lot has been written on caste and
scheduled castes, there is not much need to repeat various views, however it
may be pointed out that as a form of social inequality, it seems to be
implicating all aspects of social relations and interactions. Caste status is
determined by birth accompanied by hereditary occupation, endogamy, and
restrictions on eating and interaction. To understand the process of
sustenance, here is need for clear-cut identification of the agents who
exercise power as well as articulate powerful ideology. The latter exists in
the form of Dharma-karma principle that links the caste status with the deeds
of the previous birth. In such a system, the choice of occupation is limited
for a caste and it is enforced by power. The scheduled castes, ideally
speaking, were performing the occupations that were degraded and polluting.
Refusal of these castes to do that polluting work and an attempt to go for some
non-polluting work implied the powerful response from the power holders, that
is, ruling castes.
The major change came after the
The main objective of the paper is to map the nature and extent of
entrepreneurship among the scheduled castes as well as to see whether it has
brought about change in their social and political world. It may seem truism
yet it may be pointed out that the moment we find entrepreneurship among dalits
a level change is subsumed under it. Entrepreneurship is innovative, creative
and risk prone activity where they have ventured in, which requires capital,
decision- making ability and leadership traits. Thus taking to entrepreneurship
points towards change in social and economic conditions of the people.
The study presents a case of a caste that has excelled in
entrepreneurship. The focus of examination of empowerment here is
the Chamar/Ad-dharmi, an artisan caste located in Boota Mandi area of Jalandhar
city. The interview schedule and case study method have been used for the
collection of information that is both qualitative and quantitative in nature.
In all 100 respondents have randomly been selected out of which 64 per cent are
entrepreneurs and rest of the 36 percent are engaged in various other
occupations. The data pertaining to 64 entrepreneurs also includes a few case
studies of successful entrepreneurs. The traditional caste occupation of
Chamars/Ad-dharmis has been dealing with carcass/ skins and hides. These
Chamars from adjoining villages were frequently coming to this place for the
sale and purchase of dead animals and many of them settled here. From then
onwards it became Boota Mandi (
The Chamars chose to become Ad-dharmis when Mangoo Ram – former
activist of the Ghadar party movement from the village Mughowal in Hoshiarpur
district launched the Ad-dharm movement in the 1920s. The movement remained
concentrated in Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur districts. The agenda of the Ad-dharm
movement was to create a new religious identity – Ad-dharm (an ancient religion)
for the lower castes, which would carve out a separate religious space for them
(Ram 2004). Thus the term Ad-dharmi has become a polite synonym for Chamar.
Henceforth, in this study Chamars are referred to as Ad-dharmis.
The Ad- dharmi are the most progressive and enterprising of all the
scheduled castes. Sabarwal in Mobile Men (1990) has made a comparative
study of Ramgarhia, Ad-dharmis and Balmikis in an urban area of
The case study of empowerment of the Ad-dharmis/Chamars of Boota Mandi
depicts their own initiative, motivation and hard work to make their
traditional skills in hides and skins relevant in the changed scenario of
industrialisation and modernisation.
Besides the main theoretical issues, method and objectives of the
study, which we have already explicated, the present paper is divided into two
parts. The first part deals with the
entrepreneurial activities of the Ad- dharmis at the empirical level. While a
few case studies of successful entrepreneurs are discussed in the second part,
whereas in the end some conclusions are drawn.
I. Empirical
Mapping of the Entrepreneurs
Personal Profile: All the respondents are
males falling mainly (84.37 per cent) in the age 20 to 50 years. Therefore,
taking to entrepreneurship is relatively a recent phenomenon. All of them are
Ad-dharmis. Except for a Christian and a Buddhist, all others are Hindus. They
(89.06%) are mainly the natives of this place as they all have moved to the
present location from the nearby surrounding villages some 70 to 80 years back.
Most of the respondents are born here. With the growth of the area many of
these villages have been subsumed by the place. Only four of them have migrated
to this place from outside the state. All are educated though 55 percent have
got education up to matriculation and plus two level. Even in the case of their
fathers, 64 per cent were educated. Most of the mothers of the respondents are
illiterate, yet one quarter of them are educated up to the level of
matriculation.
The traditional caste occupation
for all the Chamars was dealing with raw hides (59.37%), tanning of leather (29.69%)
and snaring of skins (9.37%). Whereas, a significant transformation has been
found in the present occupational status of the respondents. Apart from
becoming leather goods industrialists, rawhide merchants, commission agents of
animals and wholesalers of hides and skins, and owners of tanneries, they have
also become large businessmen (18.75), medium (23.44) and petty shopkeepers
(9.55). One of them is also running a school. The information on their father’s
occupation reveals that 64.06% of them were engaged in large and wholesale
business, while 6.25% were in medium type of business and 7.81% were running
small and petty business. Nearly 17 percent of them were engaged in different
types of jobs including junior Government officer, clerical job, and skilled
workers. Besides 4.69 percent of them were either farmers or immigrants.
2. Entrepreneurship: A large majority of the
scheduled castes that have become entrepreneurs have mainly ventured into those
activities that deal with their hereditary occupation. They have modified and
diversified their hereditary skills in preparing the hides and skins. It is
significant to note that 9.37 percent of them have become industrialists out of
which nearly six percent are manufacturing a variety of leather goods, such as
leather garments, purses, belts, and tool- belts- a hundred percent export
product, while rest of them are running shoe factories. A large proportion
i.e., 44 percent has become rawhide merchants, and nearly five percent of them
have become commission agents of leather. The raw hides are procured from
different parts of
|
Entrepreneurial
Activities |
Numbers |
Percentage |
|
Leather
Goods Industry |
4 |
6.25 |
|
Shoe
factory |
2 |
3.13 |
|
Raw Hide
merchant |
28 |
43.75 |
|
Leather
commission agent |
3 |
4.69 |
|
Property
dealer |
1 |
1.56 |
|
Saw Mill |
2 |
3.13 |
|
Running a
School |
1 |
1.56 |
|
Leather
Goods Shop |
5 |
7.81 |
|
Readymade
Garments |
1 |
1.56 |
|
General
store |
3 |
4.69 |
|
Karyana
shop |
1 |
1.56 |
|
Music
Shop |
1 |
1.56 |
|
Shoe Shop |
8 |
12.50 |
|
Tailoring
Shop |
2 |
3.13 |
|
Electric
goods repair shop |
1 |
1.56 |
|
Telephone
booth |
1 |
1.56 |
|
Total |
64 |
100.00 |
“Earlier 100
persons were engaged in this traditional work and now only ten persons are left
in the work to carry on the activities. It has ceased to be profitable as was
in the past, because people prefer to buy machine made goods”. He further
laments that in “1950 there were 90 units of leather tanning in Boota Mandi, but
now only five units of traditional tanning are left and this change has
occurred drastically for the last five years”. In the tanneries, many of the
Ad-dharmis have become workers though more than half of the workers are
migrants who are involved in cleaning, peeling, and stitching of the hides. It
means that in order to meet the demand of the work, the migrants are also
attracted. Some of the Ad- dharmis have also become workers in sports goods
industry located in another locality Basti Nau in Jalandhar. It is significant
to mention that many younger generation Ad- dharmis are interested in
immigrating to foreign countries while many of their relatives are already
settled abroad.
Globalisation has given boost to their traditional occupation. Their
market has in fact been extended to all over the world. The process of their
mobility and modernity may be explained through the relevance of their
hereditary skills in the modern–industrial world. But why did they take up to
entrepreneurial activities? It was found that 11 per cent of the respondents
considered their earlier occupation stigmatised, 7.81 per cent find their
traditional occupation not profitable and lost its demand. While 63 per cent mentioned that their new work
is linked with their caste occupation. Therefore, it is an extension of their
traditional work, whereas 17 per cent considered it more profitable, whereas
three percent have got the training/ educational qualification to take up to
the new occupation. When did this process actually take place? The change
started occurring after the independence of the country. A slow process of
change in occupation carried over up to the late 1970s (20.41%), another 14.06
percent changed the occupation in the next decade. The pace accelerated in the
90’s when it reached to thirty percent. The first five years of this century
have already witnessed transformation in 20 per cent cases. There are 15
percent such cases that did not respond to this question. What was the source
of motivation for them to take up to this occupation? For more than fifty per
cent respondents the present occupation was related with their hereditary
occupation and they have learnt it through experience another 31 percent did it
for economic survival and due to self-realisation and awakening (14.06%)
besides one case of the impact of social reformers.
It is interesting to note that their fathers (76.56%) and grandfathers
(65.62%) were also running the businesses and were carrying on different
trading activities. The rest of the respondents’ fathers and grandfathers were
engaged in other economic activities. In fact nearly 88 percent of
grandfathers’ and 90 percent of fathers’ nature of business activities were at
the same prestige level as that of the respondents. Only one case of grandfather
and four (8.16 %) cases of fathers were at a higher level of prestige than
them.
What kind of preparation they made for taking up to the business
activities? It is relevant to mention that seventy two percent of respondents
mentioned that it was their hereditary occupation and other sixteen per cent
believed that they had experience. Only in case of eight per cent of
respondents it is either through education or vocational training. Accordingly,
the source of learning the skill was
hereditary (70%), on- the –job/through experience (24%) and private
apprenticeship (6%). But how did they start their enterprises? Seventy percent
of respondents invested in their enterprises through their personal savings.
While their relatives and friends helped nineteen per cent financially, six per
cent got financial assistance from the banks and only one of them got the
finance from a moneylender. Since Boota Mandi is a market and a residential
locality, all the enterprises are located either in the main market or in the residential
area.
So far as the conditions of work were concerned, it was found that
these entrepreneurs were working rather for long hours. Nearly seventy five
percent of them were working between 9 and 12 hours a day for six days in a
week with a rest for one day. Since it is a well-established view that in
business the relatives, friends and primordial ties do play a very significant
role, an attempt was made to find out the participation of family members in
various entrepreneurial activities. Though it was found that in case of 60 per
cent respondents it was not applicable, in the rest of the cases father/uncle
(8%), brother (14%), or son (18%) fully participated in all business
activities. Besides the family members, nearly three quarters of them have up
to five employees. In the case of big enterprises more than twenty persons are
hired to perform various activities. They are also holding managerial
positions, besides the accountants, supervisors and a large number of
attendants/helpers and labourers. One may get interested to know the caste
background of these employees. Are there some persons who belong to upper
castes? Interestingly, fifty eight per cent have hired the persons from their
own caste. Other eight per cent replied that some of their employees belong to
their caste while some belong to upper castes, and three percent mentioned that
some of their employees belonged to the same caste as of the respondents while
others belong to lower castes. There are thirty per cent such cases in which the
respondents either do not know the caste background of their employees or they
do not want to disclose it.
In the market economy, commodities are bought or sold on the basis of
their quality and performance. We may thus expect that their customers would be
from their own caste. The data do not corroborate with the expectations. Ninety
five per cent of the respondents mentioned that they had customers belonging to
different caste groups of the society- including the upper and lower castes.
This process reflects the transformation of the rigid social structure. Further
we are interested to know the extent or expansion of their market. Fifty five
percent of the respondents have their market locally, three percent have it all
over the state, five percent have it up to the whole of
Unlike other industries such as textile, iron and steel based in
All visible indicators reveal that the Ad-dharmis in Boota Mandi are by
and large doing well in trade and business, but the information we could gather
from them on their investments is highly under stated. The pattern of their
investment remains traditional as usual. They started the business with a few
thousand rupees and presently, some of them (10%) have grown to crores of
rupees of investments.
In the case of Ad-dharmis, the entrepreneurship is rapidly emerging
economic phenomena where more than a quarter of their family members have also
become entrepreneurs. Some of them are running businesses at the same level
while others are doing it at a larger scale. It is relevant to explore that
with the globalisation where privatisation and liberalisation of the market
have prevailed upon, whether they introduced any changes in the business to be
competitive with world market forces. And what kind of problems they are facing
as a result of it. A significant number of persons have not yet awakened to the
call. They are continuing with the already existing set up. Whereas others have
introduced changes in the techniques and mode of work besides the
organisational set up. Their major worry is competition- both internal and
external. More than thirty percent respondents fear the competition from
leather industry of
II. A Few Cases of Entrepreneurs
This section of
the paper presents a few cases of the socio-economic and political empowerment
experienced by the scheduled castes. The cases presented here somehow reveal
that though the process of their mobility has accelerated for the last few
decades, yet their fathers and grandfathers had already paved the way to
success for them. In all the cases, their grandfathers some 80 years ago moved
out of the villages to the place where ample opportunities were available in
their traditional work. With their sheer hard work, perseverance, business
acumen and innovativeness they have become multi millionaires, political
representatives, and socially mobile persons.
1. An Illustrious Case of
Empowerment: Mr. Surinder Kumar Mahey, an Ad-dharmi has arisen to become the first
citizen of Jalandhar - the third largest city of
Though he was elected as a councillor for the
first time in 1991 when the democratic procedure was restored. He continued to win as councillor till June
2002 when he was elected to the post of Mayor of the city. There are total 55
councillors elected in the city, out of which 26 councillors are scheduled
castes and rest of them belong to the general category. In spite of opposition
from upper castes, he was elected to the post of Mayor. After taking over as
the Mayor, he claimed to have carried out many projects particularly for the
betterment of the scheduled castes. He thought that the earlier Mayors ignored
the development of all the four outer areas around the city that were mainly
inhabited by the scheduled castes.
He gave first priority to water supply and got installed 82 tube
wells in the surrounding villages, which fall under the jurisdiction of the
city corporation. Further, he took over the slum development project again with
the emphasis on the drinking water supply and construction of residential
quarters for the scheduled castes.
He is strongly of the view that society can develop on the basis of
religion. He argues that the Sikhs have a distinct identity on the basis of
religion. Similarly, the Hindus have their own distinct identity. All religious
groups have their own religious holy book. The dalits are considered a part of
Hinduism, but the Hindus do not regard them so in practice. He strongly
believes that it is only when they have their own religious book- a collection
of the ideas and philosophy of Guru Ravi Dass is compiled and worshiped - the
scheduled castes would be able to come up in the social hierarchy by having
their own distinct identity. Till such time they do not have their separate
religion, they cannot improve their condition. The argument has simple economic
explanation, that is, by placing the religious book at a place where devotees
would come and the offering would be generated in the form of funds which later
are used for establishing school/ colleges and even universities besides the
development of the people. So far they visit the Hindu or Sikh religious places
and their offerings go to the common pool, which is used for the promotion of
their own religion. He was also feeling disgusted at all those dalits who could
succeed in life differentiated themselves by changing their religion and caste
identity. They never helped their own community members. He was of the view
that the scheduled caste people themselves have to come out of their prevailing
conditions. For instance if they stop doing dirty jobs- cleaning, sweeping,
etc. then the people concerned themselves would do their such unclean jobs. It
is the nature of ones work which makes the person low or high.
2. Becoming of a Seth: Rich, Famous and
Honourable: Seth Sat Pal, son of Seth Milkhi Ram, fifty years old multi millionaire
is a rawhides merchant. He is educated up to higher secondary while his father
was a primary school educated. He has five brothers and two sisters who all are
educated up to matriculate/ higher secondary level. His six daughters and a son
are graduates while one of her daughters is doing her masters. Besides being
rawhides merchant his grandfather had an agency at
He also disclosed the fact that why almost all
the people in Boota Mandi are Chamars. He described that earlier the scheduled
caste people did not have the right to get the registration of their houses
done. There used to be Rajatnama (a kind of agreement) only which was to be
stamped by the Namberdar (the local village revenue collector). His grandfather
being the Namberdar would deliberately put stamps only on the papers of the
scheduled castes.
He
has visited most of the foreign countries including
Despite being so
rich, he himself actively participates in all the activities of rawhides. His
office and godown are situated in the Boota Mandi. He comes to the work place
early in the morning as most of the sale and purchase of rawhides takes place
in the morning. Seth Sat Pal removes his jacket and trousers and dressed in
Kurta Pyjama sits on the heap of rawhides with a note pad. Meanwhile the workers
start unloading the truck and simultaneously he starts counting the pieces.
Sometime it is mixed skins of buffalo, goat, sheep, and calf while other times
it is separately loaded. The hides come to this place from whole of
In his view, Boota Mandi is like a capital of
the scheduled castes. If one has a problem/ trouble can come here and seek the
assistance. Lakhs of rupees are collected for the birthday celebrations of Guru
Ravi Dass with lot of fervour and gaiety. The sources reveal that on one day
the liquor sale from Boota Mandi’s shop goes up to 7 - 8 lakhs. He says that
there is a sharp decline in the rawhide market due to high cost of electricity,
bank rate of interest, high labour cost and competition from
3. A Case of Inter-Generational
Occupational and Social Mobility: Steven Kaler, a successful industrialist, a
postgraduate, 35 years of age, calls Boota Mandi as his native place though his
grandfather migrated to this place in the first decade of 20th
century from a nearby town Nakodar. His grandfather was the first postgraduate
from this area, while his father studied up to under graduate level. He has
five brothers and sisters. They all are
educated and are well placed. His wife is a civil servant. His grandfather
moved to
After finishing his post graduation
in the first position, he was offered a job of lecturer by the local well
reputed college; but his father decided to put him to business. As the family
has three factories, he moved to
In the 1950s, a modern shoe company-
Bawa - now collaborating with Lotus under the brand name Lotus Bawa started
by a Khatri family near the Boota Mandi. They had latest technology and many of
the Chamars who had hereditary skill in hides were employed in their factory, which
in the process learnt new skills and techniques. It is mentioned that these
people who earlier were the employees with Bawa are now running nearly fifty
percent units. He believes that education, exposures to foreign countries and
money have remained very important variables in their success. For the
upliftment of scheduled castes he suggests that the only way is through
education. But unfortunately they can afford to go to government schools where
teachers are from upper castes that do not have any interest in their
development. For him caste is not an important issue but after a certain level
class position becomes more important. He narrates that his father in his times
used to face the stigma of caste but during his time, particularly in college
he along with other boys of his caste used to fight back. His family is
virtually a mixed one. The relatives - daughters in law of the family are from
Brahmin, Jain and Khatri castes. With regard to questions on inter religious
and inter caste marriages many of the respondents including him are of the view
that a scheduled caste boy is acceptable, they may get girls but nobody is
accepting the scheduled caste girls for upper caste boys. That is why they
themselves encourage marriages within their own caste status.
Summing Up
By way of concluding the discussion on empowerment through
entrepreneurship, we may discern certain features of their entrepreneurship.
Boota Mandi a native place of most of the entrepreneurs has emerged as the most
important economic and political centre of Ad-dharmis in
Note: The paper is based on an empirical study conducted
under the Major Project awarded by UGC along with Professor Paramjit S. Judge
to study “Education, Empowerment, Emigration and Entrepreneurship: A Study of
Social Mobility among the Scheduled Castes in Punjab”, 2004-2006.
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